(Photo: Freddy Ippolito)
Craig Blackwell didn’t grow up on the East Coast where so many famous sportfishing boats have been designed and built to later dominate tournaments worldwide. The Blackwell Boatworks founder instead spent his early years in Michigan along the chilly waters off Lake Huron. However, some individuals are simply meant to live that offshore life.
“If you’d asked me when I was 16 years old if I was going to build a boat, I would have told you you’re crazy,” says Jarrett Bay Founder and President Randy Ramsey when recalling his 30-plus year career in the boat building industry. But to understand how the company has risen to where it is today, you have to go back to the root of it all—hull #1, which stemmed from a simple and pure love of fishing.
Titan’s hull number one looking pretty on the water.
Russ Garufi had his first boat when he was 14 years old. It was a 16 footer with 35 horsepower that he’d purchased from Sears. He took that boat out in the South River off the Chesapeake Bay until he was 16, when he upgraded to a 21-foot Reinell with a V8 inboard/outboard, also from Sears.
(Photo/Michael Rybovich & Sons)
For boat builder Michael Rybovich & Sons, one could say there is not a single hull number one but several hulls that can be given the title. While the core of the Rybovich legacy—a family-run company committed to expert boat craftsmanship—has stayed true since the beginning, the company has had to reinvent itself throughout the years.
Photo: Will Douglass
By Nichole Osinski
Sitting in his truck, the A/C at full blast, Donnie Caison stares out across the boat yard in North Carolina where Caison Yachts’ first build rests, getting some routine work done. “I was kind of a late bloomer, I fished in lakes. I was in my 20s before I started saltwater fishing,” Donnie recalls when asked how he got into offshore fishing.
“I went to work for a guy as a general superintendent in the late 80s at a site development company, and he took me fishing. We went to the local ledge called the 23-mile rock and caught sailfish, king mackerel and other species. I came home and immediately bought a 20-foot center console.” On his maiden voyage fishing for Spanish mackerel, he blew the powerhead on the motor, forcing Caison to find a replacement outboard. He ended up buying a 150 Mercury. “Of course, it was a 25-inch shaft instead of a 20-inch shaft, so I had to raise the top of the transom. So that was my first fiberglass work,” Caison says.
Photo courtesy Weaver Boatworks
By Nichole Osinski
Jim Weaver started fishing when he was around 20 years old, but it wasn’t until the 80s when he first competed in the White Marlin Open. A Maryland native, Weaver claims it was that tournament that got him hooked on sportfishing. Fast forward to the late 90s and Jim had started a construction business and now had his own 55-foot Ocean Yacht, as well as friends who had custom boats built. Something that Weaver would see as a challenge.
With an extensive list of sportfishers across the globe and more on the way, Jarrett Bay is now celebrating 35 years of boat building. For the company’s 35th anniversary, Jarrett Bay co-founder Randy Ramsey looks back on the events and people that inspired his first build, Sensation, which would go on to shape future boats to come.
An evolution of Merritt boats, in formation. The 42’ Caliban, built solely by Roy Merritt in 1967, the 72’ Brier Patch built in 2009. And the 86’ Destiny, splashed in 2011.
The Sea Fix, a Ritchie boat splashed in 2019, exemplifies Howell’s modern creations—the heritage of which can be traced to a conversation between two North Carolina charter captains. Photo courtesy Pepper Ailor
The Moppie, the first 31 Bertram, would win the 1960 and 1961 Miami to Nassau Race.
To build any boat from scratch is a magical thing. Having the gumption to take a big pile of your own money and turn it into a pile of materials that you intend to turn into a boat goes way beyond my perception or capabilities. Taking another fella’s money and trying to do it for the first time must spin the term “nerve wracking” to incredible new heights. Nevertheless, there’s always a few pioneers who step up and make something new that the boat-building industry just can’t ignore. Here are just a few examples of boats that have made a difference…there are plenty many more in North Carolina, Florida and elsewhere….
